Message distribution service

ABSTRACT

A computer-implemented method of distributing location-based message contents over a messaging system comprises, for each message of a set of messages, obtaining a message content, defining for the message a multiplicity of message locations, and adding the message content and the defined locations to a message distribution database or set of linked databases that is or are searchable by location. The method further comprises receiving from a consumer device a consumer update request including a location of the consumer device or a consumer defined location, searching the database using the consumer device location or consumer defined location to identify, for each of one or more of said messages, a single message location that is within a first predefined range of the consumer device location or consumer defined location and/or that is closest to the consumer location or consumer defined location, and sending the identified message location(s) to the consumer device.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation-in-part application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/717,091, filed on Dec. 17, 2019, and entitled “MESSAGE DISTRIBUTION SERVICE.” The entire disclosure of the above-identified application is incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a location-based message distribution service for distributing messages to a multiplicity of end-user devices. In particular, though not necessarily, the invention relates to such a service for delivering messages to mobile end-user devices where the messages are presented on a display using augmented reality.

BACKGROUND

The majority of messaging applications provided for end-user mobile devices such as smartphones are essentially agnostic in a geographical sense. A user will receive a message sent to him or her regardless of their location. However, users of messaging services are often using devices with access to additional data, such as location. Messaging services have begun to take advantage of this, offering features such as location tagged messages (i.e. messages associated with a particular location).

An example message flow for a single message in such an app is shown in FIG. 1. The message flow involves a sending client 110, a server 120, and a receiving client 130. In step 101, the sending client 110 creates a message, which includes details of a particular location. In step 102, the sending client 110 sends this message to the server 120. In step 103, the server 120 forwards this message to the receiving client 130, which notifies the user in step 104. The receiving client displays the message in step 105 in some kind of location-identifying view, e.g. on a map or in an AR view, at a location corresponding to the associated location. The message may only be available for viewing (i.e. the message content delivered to the client) when the receiving client 120 is present at or in the vicinity of the associated location.

SUMMARY

The present invention flows from a realisation that some message creators may want to attach multiple locations to a single message. With conventional location-based messaging services, this would require the sending of the message multiple times, each with a different location (e.g. the different location attached. This places a large burden on the message sender, particularly where there are many hundreds or even thousands of locations associated with a message. The conventional services also give rise to the problem that a message with multiple locations will cause corresponding multiple notifications to be made to the receiving client. This is likely to be confusing for the receiver and would inevitably reduce the quality of the user experience.

According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a computer-implemented method of distributing location-based message contents over a messaging system and that are displayable on consumer devices present at associated locations. The method comprises, for each message of a set of messages, obtaining a message content, defining for the message a multiplicity of message locations, and adding the message content and the defined locations to a message distribution database or set of linked databases that is or are searchable by location. The method further comprises receiving from a consumer device a consumer update request including a location of the consumer device or a consumer defined location, searching the database using the consumer device location or consumer defined location to identify, for each of one or more of said messages, a single message location that is within a first predefined range of the consumer device location or consumer defined location and/or that is closest to the consumer location or consumer defined location, and sending the identified message location(s) to the consumer device.

Embodiments provided for by the invention allow for a greatly reduced messaging flow when providing multi-location messages over a location-based messaging service, as well as simplifying the multi-location message creation and management processes.

The method may comprise sending the message content to the consumer device if either (a) said consumer device location or consumer defined location is within a second predefined range of a sent identified message location, or (b) the consumer device sends a further consumer update request containing a new location of the consumer device or a consumer defined location that is within said second predefined range of a sent identified message location. The method may further comprise receiving the message content at the consumer device, and displaying the message content on a display as augmented reality content. The display may display real-time video captured by a device camera. Alternatively, the display may be a transparent or semi-transparent display.

The step of defining for the message a multiplicity of message locations may comprise defining a message location search term, performing a search to identify multiple locations for the search term, and defining these multiple locations as said multiplicity of message locations. The step of defining a message location search term may comprise receiving a search term from a message sending client, together with said message content.

The step of performing a search may comprise submitting said location search term to a web mapping service using a service API and receiving in response a results list including said multiple locations.

The method may comprise receiving the identified message location(s) at the consumer device and displaying these on a device display as an overlay on a map.

The method may comprise, for an identified message, defining a message appearing time such that message content sent to a consumer device is only available to the consumer after the appearing time.

The method may comprise, for an identified message, defining a message disappearing time such that message content sent to a consumer device is only available to the consumer prior to the disappearing time.

The method may comprise defining for one or more of the messages of said set of messages a passcode such that message content sent to a consumer device is only available after the passcode has been input to the consumer device.

The method may comprise defining for one or more of the messages of said set of messages a collection number defining the number of times that a message content can be collected by consumer devices at a given one of the defined locations, or defining a number of users that can collect a message content with their respecting consumer devices.

The step of searching the database may comprise identifying, for each of one or more of said messages, multiple message locations within said first predefined range and selecting as said single location the closest location to the consumer location or consumer defined location.

According to a second aspect of the invention there is provided a computer implemented method of presenting message content as visually augmented reality content on a display of a user device, the method comprising:

-   -   for message content associated with multiple locations,         identifying a location closest to the user device;     -   sending to the user device a notification identifying said         closest location;     -   displaying said closest location on said display;     -   making a determination that the user device is present at or         near said closest location;     -   sending said message content to the user device; and     -   presenting the message content as visually augmented reality on         said display.

According to a third aspect of the present invention there is provided a computer implemented method of presenting message content at a user device, the method comprising:

-   -   sending to the user device a notification identifying a location         associated with a message;     -   displaying said closest location on a display of the user         device;     -   making a determination that the user device is present at said         location;     -   making message content of said message available at the user         device, the method further comprising defining a recurring time         for the message such that message content is only available at         the user device, at or near said location, during the recurring         time.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention there is provided a computer implemented method of presenting message content at a user device, the method comprising:

-   -   sending to the user device a notification identifying a location         associated with a message;     -   displaying said closest location on a display of the user         device;     -   making a determination that the user device is present at said         location;     -   making message content of said message available at the user         device, the method further comprising defining for said message         a group of user devices including said first mentioned user         device such the message content is only available to those user         devices when they are all present at said location at         substantially the same time.

According to a further aspect of the present invention there is provided a computer implemented method of presenting message content at a user device, the method comprising:

-   -   sending to the user device a notification identifying a location         associated with a message;     -   displaying said closest location on a display of the user         device;     -   making a determination that the user device is present at said         location;     -   making message content of said message available at the user         device, the method further comprising defining a chain of         messages including said first mentioned message such that the         respective message contents can only be viewed or otherwise         collected in a given message sequence. Messages of the chain may         be associated with the same or different recipient users.

It will be understood that message locations and message content may be send to user devices using device addresses and/or user addresses. Thus, message locations and message content may be collected by a user on any device that he or she is currently using.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram of message flow according to an exemplary prior art method;

FIG. 2 is a diagram of message flow in an exemplary method;

FIG. 3 is a network diagram showing connections between the entities involved in FIG. 2; and

FIG. 4 is an exemplary display of an augmented reality interface of a receiving client.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following disclosure is concerned with a messaging application or “app” in which messages may be associated with location data, and where users can view messages in a geographic region (e.g. close to the user) via an interface. The interface may display a list of messages in the geographic region, display the messages overlaid on a map, or display the messages in an “augmented reality” view (i.e. with the message appearing to float in front of the associated location on displayed graphics, e.g. as captured by a device camera). More particularly, the disclosure is concerned with messages that are each associated with multiple locations, possible even a very large number of locations. It will of course be appreciated that an augmented reality (AR) message can be displayed using a number of different approaches, e.g. under a displayed location in the case where the device is in the basement of a building or on a location as a virtual billboard.

Consider the example of a chain of supermarkets which wishes to use the location-based messaging service to provide a given message content to customers in their marketing list, with the location tagged as the supermarket stores in the chain. The message content might include for example a discount code that a receiver can use to obtain a discount on items purchased (e.g. “Celebrate Valentine's Day; discount code 12345”).

FIG. 2 illustrates a messaging flow that can be used for this purpose, whilst FIG. 3 shows an exemplary network on which the method could be implemented. The network comprises a plurality of sending clients 2010, a server 2020 (which may be a server cluster or server cloud), and a plurality of receiving clients 2030. The sending client may also be capable of receiving messages, and the receiving client may also be capable of sending messages—the names simply refer to their roles in the method presented. The clients may be smartphones, tablets, PCs, wearables including wrist worn devices, etc. Connectivity between clients and the server is provided by any suitable communications network(s). For example, the clients may be connected to the Internet via cellular or WiFi networks, whilst the server may be coupled to the Internet via an enterprise network and a broadband network.

Referring again to FIG. 2, in step 200, each receiving client 2030 periodically sends its location to the server 2020. This might result from a user opening the messaging app on his or her device, or selecting a refresh option. Upon receipt of the message from the receiving client, the server will identify any “personal” messages previously sent to the receiving client, e.g. by the sending clients 2010. If these have a location associated with them, and if the receiving client is not in that location, only a message notification will be sent (possibly with certain other data such as a location “card” including, for example, a location street address). This might indicate the location of the message which can be displayed on a map at the receiving client's device or as an item in a message list. If the receiving client is however in the associated location (or more typically with a given range of that location, e.g. 100 m), the message content will be sent to the receiving client such that it can be displayed on the receiving device, e.g. using an augmented reality (AR) approach.

In step 201, one of the sending client 2010 chooses to create a “multi-position” message, containing message content that is to be associated with a set of locations (this is called a “multi-position message”, as it is associated with multiple locations).

In step 202, the sending client 2010 sends this multi-position message to the server 2020. This may be done using a “business platform” interface having a field or fields for the message content and a field identifying the locations, e.g. “supermarket name”.

In step 203, the server identifies the multiple locations associated with the information provided by the sending client in the location field. These might be, for example, the addresses of stores in the chain and their geographic coordinates, i.e. latitude and longitude. The server may perform these steps using an appropriate API, such as the Google™ mapping service API. The resulting list of locations are added to an “Atlas” database, together with links to the associated message content. As further multi-position messages are sent by the same or different sending clients, the respective locations and content links are identified by the server and the Atlas updated. The result is an Atlas database containing multiple locations associated with various message content. These messages are referred to here as “business multi-position messages”, with the intended recipients being referred to as consumers (e.g. the users of the receiving clients are considered to be consumers of the business multi-position messages). Businesses may pay a subscription to use this service (via their respective sending clients 2010), or may pay on a per-message basis, or using some other payment model.

It will be appreciated that the Atlas creation process is dynamic, and that the location of step 203 in the flow is merely exemplary.

In step 204, the server 2020 receives a further location update message from a given receiving client 2030. Once again, the server will identify any personal messages destined for the receiving client and deliver a notification and or message content as described above.

In step 205, the server will also determine which if any of the multi-position messages are intended for the receiving client 2030. If the number of multi-position messages is small, all messages may be identified. However, it is more likely that a subset of the complete multi-message set will be identified. This subset may be identified by, for example, matching metadata associated with respective messages (e.g. submitted by the sending client with the message request) against receiving client metadata (e.g. user behaviour, stated preferences, etc).

In steps 206 and 207, the server determines which of the identified (intended) messages should actually be notified or sent to the receiving client. For each of the identified multi-position messages, the server determines at step 206 the location associated with that multi-position message that is closest to the client. The server then determines 207, for each of those locations, whether the location is within a “notification distance” of the client, and whether it is within a “sending distance” of the client (where the notification distance is greater than the sending distance, e.g. 50 km notification distance and 100 m sending distance). Alternatively, the two substeps may be performed in the opposite order—e.g. for each multi-position message the server first determines whether there are any locations within the notification distance and/or the sending distance, and then, for each message having at least one location within the notification distance, the server determines which location associated with that message is the closest.

In this example, the closest location is within the notification distance, so in step 208, the server sends a notification of the multi-position message to the receiving client. This notification comprises at least information regarding the closest location of the multi-position message, and may comprise additional data such as a message summary and/or the identity of the message sender. In step 209, the receiving client notifies the user of the closest location of the multi-position message, e.g. by display on a map or on an augmented reality display (as described in further detail later). At this stage, the user is aware that there is a message “waiting for them” at a particular location, but cannot access the contents of the message until they are closer to the location, i.e. within the sending distance.

In step 210, the receiving client sends a further location update, and in step 211 the server repeats steps 206 and 207 for this further location update, i.e. identifying the closest location of each multi-position message, and determining whether it is within the notification and/or sending distance.

In this example, the receiving client is within the sending distance, so in step 212, the server sends the message content of the multi-position message to the client, together with information regarding the closest location of the multi-point message (which may be a reference to the notification sent in step 207). In step 213, the receiving client displays the message to the user in an augmented reality interface. This may require the user to select a notification displayed in the AR interface, which then brings up the message contents.

Steps 206 (determining the closest location) and 207 (determining whether the closest location is within the notification and/or sending distance) will be performed each time the receiving client sends a location update, and step 205 will also be repeated to identify any new messages (which may be done in response to a location update, on a schedule, or in response to some other event).

In step 205, the server may only identify messages that have not yet been sent to the receiving client, and in step 206 the server may only consider the sending distance when determining whether to send a message or notification for a message which has already been notified to the receiving client.

If a location update places the receiving client within sending distance of a message which has not yet been notified to that client, then the server may include the message contents with the notification (effectively proceeding directly to step 212 from step 207).

In step 206, where a receiving client has already been notified of a multi-position message, the server may determine whether another of the locations is closer to the client than the previous closest location, and if so the server may resent the notification if that closest location is within the notification distance.

The information representing the location may be GPS coordinates or another suitable representation.

Instead of determining notification distance based on the actual location of the receiving client, the receiving client may send a request for notifications around a user-defined location, and in steps 206 and 207 the server may determine the “closest location” and “notification distance” based on that user-defined location. This may be useful, for example, if a user wishes to determine whether there are any messages close to a location they are travelling towards, before they actually get there. The user may identify the user-defined location by swiping across a displayed map. The “notification distance” may also be user-definable, i.e. provided in a location update by the receiving client, e.g. a user may define the distance by enlarging or reducing the size of a displayed map area. The “sending distance” may still be determined for the actual location of the device, even if the receiving client provides a user-defined location.

The message contents may include multimedia content, e.g. any combination of text, images, video, audio, additional location data (i.e. a location other than the associated location), etc. The message contents may include only static content (i.e. the same for each location of the set), or it may include both static and dynamic content, where the dynamic content depends on which of the set of associated locations is associated with the single-position message generated by the server. For example, the message contents may include a first image which is a product advertisement (static content), and a set of second images which is a picture of the storefronts of the associated locations (dynamic content), defined such that only the picture for the associated location will be sent by the server to the receiving client. Alternatively, the message contents may include text containing both static and dynamic content, e.g. “Come to your local shop at ((address)) for great deals today!”, where the data sent to the server comprises a lookup table of addresses for each of the set of associated locations, and the server substitutes the relevant address for “((address))” in the message contents prior to sending the single-position message to the receiving client.

While the above example has referred to a “sending client” and a “server”, the multi-position messages may be directly created at the server, rather than originally obtained from a sending client. For example, this may occur in a setup where an advertiser instructs the operator of the server to generate a message on their behalf.

In steps 209 and 213, the message or message notification is displayed on an augmented reality display. An augmented reality display is one which overlays display graphics on a real world environment. There are broadly two types of augmented reality displays. In the first type, display graphics are overlaid on an image (generally a live image) taken from a camera. This is the type commonly seen on AR apps for smartphones. In the second type, graphics are displayed on a transparent or translucent display, which the user can look through to see the real world beyond. This type is used for AR headsets, “smart glasses”, or “smart windows”, and has been proposed for “smart contact lenses”. The above disclosure could apply to any of the AR examples given, and will also be applicable to future AR technologies with appropriate modification including holographic displays.

Message content may be associated with a passcode, such as a password or PIN code, such the content can only be viewed or accessed after a receiver has entered the passcode into his or her device. The passcode may be derived from biometric data such as a fingerprint or the image of a face. In the case of a password, the user's device may provide a means for recovering a forgotten password, such as by way of displaying a password hint.

FIG. 4 shows an example AR interface displaying messages and message notifications according to the above examples. The AR interface comprises a “real world view” 401 (i.e. a camera feed, or a transparent display which allows viewing of the real world directly), over which graphics are presented representing a message notification 402, and a message 403. The message notification corresponds to a first multi-position message for which the closest location is only within the notification distance, and the message 403 corresponds to a multi-position message for which the closest location is within the sending distance. Each of the message notification 402 and the message 403 are displayed in a location corresponding to the location associated with the respective message. The message 403 is displayed including a selection of the message content, and may include options to view further message content (e.g. if there is more than can be shown in the display). The message notification 402 may of course not be displayed on the AR interface and may be visible only as an overlay (e.g. pin) on a map view or in a message notification feed list.

Embodiments may allow a “recurring time” to be defined for a message by a sender, such that message content sent to a receiving client is only available during the recurring time. This would allow, for example, a hotel bar to offer a promotion only on Fridays and during sunset, or a song to be available every evening at midnight in a given city location.

Embodiments may allow a group of users and a location to be defined for a message such the message content is only available to those users when they are all present at the defined location. Thus, for example, the message content may be available to a group of friends but only when they are at the same location at the same time.

In other embodiments, a chain of messages may be defined, such that the respective message contents can only be viewed or otherwise collected in a given message sequence. Different locations and or times may be defined for different messages in the chain. By way of example, consider a chain comprising three messages. A recipient user has to first collect a location based message at Big Ben in London to receive a clue on where and when the second message in the chain will appear. The second message (recurring at Hyde Park every evening from 6-6:15 pm) contains the password hint for opening the third and final message in the chain. The user cannot jump the steps in the sequence of the chain; the first two messages have to be opened in the correct order before the third one can be unlocked. In other embodiments, messages of a message chain may be assigned to respective different recipient users. 

The invention claimed is:
 1. A computer implemented method of presenting message content as visually augmented reality content on a display of a user device, the display presenting real-time video captured by a camera or the display being a transparent display, and the method comprising steps of: a) for message content associated with multiple locations, identifying a location closest to the user device; b) sending to the user device a notification identifying the closest location; c) displaying the closest location on the display; d) making a determination that the user device is present at or near the closest location; e) in response to step d), sending the message content to the user device; and f) presenting the message content as visually augmented reality on the display such that the content appears overlaid on the closest location either in a captured video image or a real view behind the transparent display, wherein the steps a), b), d), and e) are carried out by a server or servers.
 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of displaying the closest location on the display comprises presenting the received notification as visually augmented reality on the display such that the received notification appears overlaid on the captured video image or the real view behind the transparent display.
 3. The method according to claim 1 further comprising, for the message content, defining a message appearing time such that the message content sent to the user device is only available to the user device after the message appearing time.
 4. The method according to claim 1 further comprising, for the message content, defining a message disappearing time such that the message content sent to the user device is only available to the user device prior to the message disappearing time.
 5. The method according to claim 1 further comprising defining for the message content a passcode such that the message content sent to the user device is only available after the passcode has been input to the user device.
 6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the steps of sending to the user device a notification identifying the closest location and sending the message content to the user device are carried out substantially concurrently, and the step of making a determination that the user device is present at or near the closest location is carried out at the user device. 